Whew! I'm pretty much up to date with stuff. I just finished the week's worth of stuff for the online class I'm taking.

I prepared pretty hard for the home Bible class last Thursday. I presented a class on Matthew 24. It's possibly one of the hardest chapters in the Bible. I have been wanting to cover it probably for a number of years. I needed an excuse. The chapter keeps getting brought up in classes at church; and a couple Wednesdays ago during my class on Joel it was brought up again. I up and said we should get down and study that chapter. We keep bringing it up but we haven't given it a real study. Maybe I'll plan to cover it in the next home Bible class. "Well, I just said it. I guess that means I'll have to do it." So, that's what I did.

I had only two members members show up. Unfortunately, most of the people who might have shown up probably had good excuses. It' wasn't a total waste. It was still a good study with my family and the two other attendees. I went ahead and wrote up my conclusions and posted them
here.

Catalina paid close attention to the class. I was pleased to see her following so well. After the class I asked her what she thought of the class. She said it was fine. I asked if she understood what Matthew 24 is about and she said she did. I told her Matthew 24 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible and she had a pleased smile. I think she felt good that she is able to understand something in the Bible that is considered difficult.

See? I told you it wasn't a total waste. I got something out of it. Catalina got something out of it; and Catalina gained a little extra satisfaction out of it too.

One of my plum trees seems to be dying.

If you follow this blog you know that I planted four new trees this year. Two of them have leafed out. One of them, a Sugar Prune, is doing great. I haven't seen a bare-root tree burst forth so vigorously before. I bought two Red Barron peach trees. One of them put out a branch about a quarter of an inch above the graft. I'm hoping for some higher branches. Today I went out with a pocket knife and scraped a little bark off the trees to see if they are still alive. They are. I checked the lone plumb tree that hasn't leafed out yet. It's dying at the higher branches. I started scratching lower and lower to see if perhaps I could find some live cambium. I found some about ten inches from the ground. I cut the tree off ten inches from the ground and sealed off the cut with some latex paint. I panted the bark with some watered down latex paint (to help hold in any available moisture). I hope it recovers.

In all likelihood this tree is suffering from its roots having been eaten by a mole.

We have at least one mole in our yard!

It is for that reason that I gave our dogs run of the back yard. I want them to either chase away that mole or kill it.

They aren't doing it. I see the mole mounds popping up here and there still.

I think I would like to borrow somebody's Jack Russel Terrier.

Of course, that would be useful only if we stay living in our current residence. We may be forced to move - as I'm in job-hunting mode.

The picture at the top of this article is a snap from the movie Bolt. It's from my absolute favorite scene in the movie. I recommend the movie. It's interesting how picky we are becoming about our animated movies these days. I was impressed with the animation in this film and the storyline was cute. Some things are a little far-fetched but still cute. I enjoyed how the movie depicted the pigeons in various parts of the country having regional accents of those areas. If you don't like it then you should definitely denounce the classic Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer as garbage.